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Recommendations issued April
29 from a commission composed primarily of members opposed to
modern livestock production likely would raise the cost of producing
food animals and increase meat prices in the face of a global
food crisis if implemented, according to the National Pork Producers
Council.
Based on a $3.4 million, two-year
"study" of the affects of livestock production on the
environment, public health and rural economies conducted by the
Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production, the recommendations
include phasing out certain production practices, banning certain
animal antibiotics and placing new restrictions on the use of
manure.
The commission overlooked the
substantial progress made by the nation's pork producers in addressing
all of those issues, said NPPC.
"Pork producers have taken
extensive steps over the last decade to meet various industry
challenges," said NPPC President Bryan Black, a pork producer
from Canal Winchester, Ohio. "We constantly are looking
for better ways to raise our pigs, including protecting them
from diseases, and we always have been good stewards of the land,
air and water that we use."
Data from eight of the top 10
swine-producing states show, for example, that since 2000 less
than 1 percent of hog farms have had a manure release. Additionally,
NPPC pointed out, a tough new federal water pollution regulation
covering CAFOs, which is due out late this summer, will protect
water supplies from pollution from all large livestock operations
by imposing a zero-discharge policy. Most swine CAFOs already
comply with the rule.
"With the discharge issues
largely addressed, it is hard to argue that large pork operations
threaten human health, but more research is needed," said
Black. "As for our operations' affects on air, the concentration
of emissions outside our buildings is well below the established,
available public-health standards."
NPPC added that the Environmental
Protection Agency recently commissioned a first-of-its-kind,
livestock industry-supported study to determine the level of
air pollution from all types of livestock operations. Findings
from the two-year study, which began last summer, will provide
the foundation for developing ways to ensure that air emissions
from livestock operations don't harm the environment.
On the issue of animal antibiotics,
NPPC noted that a ban on subtherapeutic drugs - which the commission
recommended - would lead to more pig deaths from disease and
an increase in the use of post-therapeutic drugs. Both would
lead to a rise in pork prices.
NPPC disputed the commission's
characterization that large animal feeding operations are bad
for the rural economy, pointing out that pork operations alone
are major contributors to farm communities, generating more than
550,000 mostly rural jobs and contributing an estimated $20.7
billion of personal income and $34.5 billion of gross national
product to the economy.
The organization also questioned
the objectivity of the commission, whose work was directed by
the Center for a Livable Future, which is part of the Johns Hopkins
University Bloomberg School of Public Health. Among the center's
projects is "Meatless Mondays."
"There was a lack of balance
among commission members, and the commission's work was directed
by a group unfriendly to animal agriculture," said Black.
"As a result, in its deliberations, the commission did not
give adequate weight to the views of the numerous credible voices
from within commercial animal agriculture who share the commission's
objectives for a livestock sector that is protective of the environment,
food safety, public health and animal welfare.
"Lastly, it's hard for us
to react to the substance of the commission report because it
failed to issue all but one of its technical papers," added
Black. "The lack of serious, fact-based findings and apparent
reliance on numerous anecdotal, non-peer reviewed allegations
only confirms our perception that the report recommendations
were largely predetermined."
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